U.S. may have bugged German chancellor’s mobile phone

Yet more awkwardness looms at Thursday’s U.S-EU summit. On top of growing anger over Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations, Angela Merkel has reportedly had a strong word with Barack Obama over the likely tapping of her phone.

According to a German-language report in Der Spiegel on Wednesday, research undertaken by the same publication suggested that U.S. intelligence services may have bugged the chancellor’s cell phone. Germany’s own security agencies deemed the information serious enough to warrant confronting the Americans.

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Der Spiegel noted that, when it asked the U.S. National Security Council for comment, it was told that — in the present tense — Merkel’s communications were not being monitored. Later, the White House issued a statement that again did not deny past monitoring:

“Today, President Obama and Chancellor Merkel spoke by telephone regarding allegations that the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted the communications of the German Chancellor. The President assured the Chancellor that the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of Chancellor Merkel.

“The United States greatly values our close cooperation with Germany on a broad range of shared security challenges. As the President has said, the United States is reviewing the way that we gather intelligence to ensure that we properly balance the security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share.

“Both leaders agreed to intensify further the cooperation between our intelligence services with the goal of protecting the security of both countries and of our partners, as well as protecting the privacy of our citizens.”

Countries don’t have “friends”, they have shared interests that may change over time. I expect the USA to spy on countries where we have strategic interests, just as I expect they are spying on us. To me it’s not personal, just business as usual. I do however object to the NSA spying on US citizens in the USA. We alledgedly have a right to undo search and seizure.